


Vow to Me

by wynnebat



Category: Jessica Jones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Forced Marriage, Past Rape/Non-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-29
Updated: 2016-01-29
Packaged: 2018-05-17 01:58:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5849623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wynnebat/pseuds/wynnebat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I don't sleep with married women," Luke tells her, after she screws up yet another relationship of his. </p><p>Jessica raises an eyebrow. "Tough shit. Everyone's married, these days."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Vow to Me

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [誓言](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6640975) by [lxzhii](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lxzhii/pseuds/lxzhii)



> I've missed this ship <3
> 
> Originally posted over on [tumblr](http://wynnebat.tumblr.com/).

"I don't sleep with married women," Luke tells her, after she screws up yet another relationship of his.

Jessica raises an eyebrow. "Tough shit. Everyone's married, these days."

.

Tapping her fingers against the desk and watching Jeri's annoyance levels rise, Jessica finally manages to say, "It's a private matter."

"Alright. Yes, divorce by publication is possible—and much easier to do with no contest if this spouse is as off the grid as you say he is—but it'll take time. I can't do it in a week. The absolute minimum is two months, and at most it's a year."

"I need it done faster."

Jeri shakes her head and calls Pam over the intercom. In the meantime, she looks like she's going to ask questions, and Jessica braces herself. She's not going to answer—fuck that, it's private, that's all Jeri needs to know—but she's not looking forward to antagonizing the only lawyer she knows.

"No-contest divorce papers," Jeri eventually says, taking the packet from Pam, signing in a couple places, and handing them to Jessica. "Make him sign. You're good at it, aren't you?"

Snorting, Jessica says, "He's just better." It's too much, too truthful, but she knows Jeri's going to guess eventually. There aren't many people whose privacy she cares about, people who have a dark past with a madman. She takes the papers with her.

They get wrinkled and worn over the next couple weeks, but she keeps them in a zipped up pocket of her jacket, waiting for any opportunity. Whether it's through gagging and forcing or through getting him angry enough to want to legally disentangle himself from her, she's going to make him sign.

It's an easy enough bundle of papers to sign. Jessica has no net worth, not before nor after the marriage. She doesn't have a car or a house, and she doubts Kilgrave's owned anything legally in his life. All she has is rent due next week and a checking account that's been overdrafted twice this month already. They don't have any stocks to divide, no insurance to split. She doesn't want alimony and has none to give him. Thank fuck and god and anyone else out there, there's no children to deal with in the marriage. It's an open and shut case. All Kilgrave needs to do is sign and not contest.

.

It gets less and less likely as Jessica steps through the doorway of her childhood home and is greeted as Mrs. Kilgrave by the terrified staff and by Kilgrave himself.

"Divorce papers?" he asks, once she's been searched. "Oh no."

He takes them, but he doesn't throw them away.

 _Probably keeping them as some kind of incentive,_ Jessica thinks, morosely. It won't do any good, but she still says, "I'm a terrible wife."

"Are you interested in fixing that?" He actually looks hopeful.

Rolling her eyes, she adds, "I snore."

"I'm a heavy sleeper."

"I don't cook."

"We can have a rotating staff."

"I'm an alcoholic." This is the first time she'd ever admitted it. Trish would be so proud.

"We can check ourselves into rehab."

Despite everything, Jessica laughs. " _Really_?"

"I'm sure you'll find me attractive in a straight jacket," Kilgrave says, wryly, and it's true.

.

Much too soon, her marriage feels more real than fake. They've got the house, the rings, and even the nosy neighbors. In a soft sweater, Kilgrave looks like the typical suburban husband. He even tries to act like one. And despite everything it makes her yearn for normalcy, for the life she used to lead. The house is fucking creepy, but the feelings it arouses in her aren't fake.

And for the first time in his life, Kilgrave's upholding the fine tradition of marriage.

"I'm Catholic, we don't get divorced," he says, the next time she tries to convince him. They're on the back porch, the breakfast tastes good, and Jessica's finding it hard to come up with an appealing argument.

"You're not Catholic."

"I could be. Don't know, really, never thought to ask as a kid."

"Your parents were probably devil-worshippers," Jessica mutters. And then she thinks about it, and says, "Or maybe Scientologists."

"Both of those don't do divorce either."

"Bullshit."

"If I talk to their leaders, they wouldn't."

He looks good like that, smug and annoying and charming. Occasionally, when Jessica's not fantasizing about pushing him off a cliff, she wonders if he kisses as well as she remembers. It's so muddled inside, everything she did and didn't feel. She'd rather die than be under his power again, but when it's just her and just him, it's easy to wonder what if he'd asked instead of taken.

.

"Do you still have the ring?"

"Threw it down the toilet."

.

A week later, she's still there. She's not wearing a ring, but she tells him she'll consider it, if he goes a year without using his powers to deliberately hurt another human being. Maybe, just maybe, there can be a day when Kilgrave's not a villain, not a hero, but just a regular asshole.

(Jessica's not all that hopeful. It's a pretty ring, though, the new one.)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Complete; no sequel planned.


End file.
